MXPA05002261A

MXPA05002261A - Closure integrity test method for hot-fill bottling operation.

Info

Publication number: MXPA05002261A
Application number: MXPA05002261A
Authority: MX
Inventors: Tammy Svoboda
Original assignee: Tropicana Prod Inc
Priority date: 2002-08-30
Filing date: 2003-08-25
Publication date: 2006-04-27
Also published as: PL374527A1; CA2496668A1; BR0313947A; CN1682103A; AU2003260064A1; KR20050057067A; EP1540295A1; EA200500426A1; US20040043492A1; US7105350B2; EA006668B1; WO2004020966A1; ZA200502500B; JP2005537483A

Abstract

A method for evaluating the integrity of the closure on a hot-filled container in which the hot-filled container is subjected to a pressurized spray of cooling medium, including the step of providing a cooling medium having an effective amount of a fluorescing dye contained therein, is provided. The sealed container then is sprayed with the cooling liquid. After the container has exited the cooling portion of the filling and sealing operation, the container is subjected to ultra violet light to activate any fluorescing dye which may have migrated past the closure into the interior of the container. The container is than viewed to determine the presence or absence of activated dye.

Description

PAPA CLOSURE INTEGRITY PROOF METHOD BOTTLING OPERATION OF THE BOTTLENED FILLING OF THE INVENTION A large variety of beverage and food products are packaged in sealed containers in a hot fill operation where the food or beverage is heated at a temperature typically above 170 ° F (77 ° C), and as high as 200 ° F (93 ° C), to achieve shelf stability. After hot filling and sealing, the sealed containers should be cooled as quickly as possible to minimize any bacterial growth within the package and to maximize the shelf life of the product. Various methods are used to cool the hot filled containers, including transporting the sealed hot filled containers through a cooling tunnel where they are sprayed with a cooling medium to cool the containers at a temperature typically less than 50 ° F (10). ° C). When pressurized spray is used to cool hot-filled containers, it is important to ensure that the closure of the container is effective to prevent the pressurized spray from migrating beyond the closure and into the interior of the container. Said migratory cooling medium can contaminate the contents of the container, and also indicates that other substances may be able to enter the container through the closure. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for evaluating the integrity of a closure for a hot filled container that is subjected to pressurized refrigerant spray. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method that does not necessarily require the integrity of the closure to be broken to determine whether the closure effectively seals the container. These objects, and other objects will be apparent upon reference to the following detailed description, which is provided by a method for evaluating the integrity of the closure in a hot filled container where the hot filled container is subjected to a pressurized spray of coolant, including the step of providing a coolant having an effective amount of a fluorescent dye contained therein. The sealed container is then sprayed with the coolant. After the container has left the refrigerating portion of the filling and sealing operation, the container is subjected to ultraviolet light to activate any fluorescent dye that may have migrated beyond the closure into the interior of the container. The container is checked to determine the presence or absence of the activated dye. Preferably, the cooling liquid with the fluorescent dye is sprayed onto the container during the first portion of the cooling zone. Subsequent portions of the cooling zone use a cooling liquid without the dye so that any fluorescent dye on the outside of the container can be completely washed and only the fluorescent dye that migrates beyond the closure will be detected when the container is exposed to ultraviolet light. A preferred fluorescent solution comprises riboflavin, and water, with approximately 0.2 grams of riboflavin per liter of water being the typical concentration. Ultraviolet light can be reflected through the side walls of the container if the container is translucent, which allows light to be transmitted through it, and any dye that has migrated within the contents of the container will be activated upon being subjected to the ultraviolet light. Alternatively, the closure can be removed from the container and the area of the container that is exposed by the removed closure can be subjected to ultraviolet light to activate any fluorescent dye that may have migrated beyond the closure. Hot filling and sealing operations are well known in the food packaging art, and, consequently, will not be described in detail herein. A subsystem that is commonly part of this operation is a cooling tunnel, where the hot filled containers are subjected to a refrigerated cooling sprayer to quickly reduce their temperature. In a cooling tunnel, the hot filled containers are typically subjected to a cooling spray throughout the time they are transported through the cooling tunnel, and the length of the tunnel depends on several factors, such as the speed at which They transport the containers through the cooling zone and the volume velocity of the sprayed liquid. The time requirements may depend on the size of the container, the volume of its contents, the container material, its shape and the hot fill temperature. Adhering to the invention, a method is provided for evaluating the integrity of a closure applied to a hot filled container in a hot fill operation using a pressurized liquid refrigerant sprayer. In general, the refrigerant sprayer of the present invention includes a fluorescent solution or dye that is sprayed onto the exterior of the container as it passes through the cooling tunnel. The cooling medium containing the dye is washed from the outside of the container and the container is then subjected to ultraviolet light. If the ultraviolet light activates any fluorescent dye that has migrated into the container, it is confirmed that the closure did not effectively seal the container. Conversely, if exposure to ultraviolet light does not activate any fluorescent dye, it can reasonably be assumed that the closure effectively sealed the container. The fluorescent dye solution is preferably added to the reservoir for the refrigerant sprinklers in the first section of the cooling tunnel in an amount that is effective to result in the activated dye being visible to the human eye if any refrigerant liquid containing the dye migrates to the interior of the container. The sprinkler of the subsequent sections of the cooling tunnel, which does not contain any fluorescent dye, serves to completely rinse the fluorescent dye from the outside of the container. A preferred fluorescent dye is made of riboflavin, which is vitamin B12, suitable for use in food and beverage products. Riboflavin is extremely sensitive to light and has an intense greenish-yellow fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light. Riboflavin is added to water. It is possible to include an adhesion promoter such as sugar. For example, sucrose can be added to provide adhesion. Other adhesion promoters, including other sugars, can be used in place of all or part of the sucrose. Typically riboflavin is added between about 0.1 and about 1.0 grams per 1 liter of water. When included, a sugar such as sucrose is added at a level of between about 50 and about 150 grams per liter of water. When water is included, the weight ratio of sugar to riboflavin is between about 1000: 1 and 100: 1. An example of a formula for a fluorescent dye that is used in the present invention can be seen in table I. Table I FLUORESCENCE TINT WATER 1 LITER RIBOFLAVINE 0.2 GRAM riboflavin may be a commercially available reagent grade product, such as Eastman Kodak orange riboflavin powder # EK1177112, or an equivalent. The water can be plant or processed water. If sugar is included in a formulation such as that in Table I, an example would be to add 100 grams of sucrose to that formula. If the container is made of a translucent material such as that which transmits ultraviolet light through its side walls, the test to determine its fluorescent dye has migrated beyond the closure, it can be done directly by applying ultraviolet light through the side walls of the container. container, without opening the closure or otherwise breaking the integrity of the sealed container. This allows online testing of the containers that are being filled to be achieved as desired. If the fluorescent dye has contaminated the contents of the container, it should be activated when exposed to ultraviolet light. This provides an indicator if there is a defect in the product and the filled container. Alternatively, the closure can be removed from the container and ultraviolet light applied to the area of the container exposed by the removed closure to determine if any spray of refrigerant has migrated to the closure area. In practice, a long wave ultraviolet lamp is used. However, other light sources well known in the art can also be used as long as they are effective to activate the fluorescent dye or otherwise provide a signal that can be detected by the human eye or the equipment designed for this detection. Thus, a method for evaluating the integrity of the closure in a hot filled container which meets all the objectives of the present invention has been provided. Although the invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to be limited thereto. Instead, the invention is defined according to the scope of the following claims.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A method for evaluating the integrity of a closure in a hot filled container having an interior and exterior and wherein the hot filled container is subjected to a pressurized spray of a cooling medium, characterized in that it comprises: providing the cooling medium with an effective amount of a fluorescent dye composition having a fluorescent agent; spraying the container with the cooling medium having the fluorescent dye composition; rinsing the exterior of the container to remove substantially all of the fluorescent agent therefrom; subjecting the container to ultraviolet light to activate any fluorescent agent that could migrate beyond the closure into the interior of the container; and reviewing the container to determine the presence or absence of the activated fluorescent agent.
2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the fluorescer agent comprises riboflavin and water.
3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the riboflavin is present between about 0.1 and about 1.0 gram per liter of water of the fluorescent dye composition.
4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the fluorescent dye composition also includes an adhesion promoting agent. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the adhesion promoting agent is a sugar present at about 50 and about 150 grams per liter of water of the fluorescent dye composition. 6. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the adhesion promoting agent and the riboflavin are present at a weight ratio of between about 100: 1 and about 1000: 1. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the fluorescent dye composition comprises approximately 0.2 grams of riboflavin for each liter of water. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the container comprises side walls that allow light to be transmitted through them and that ultraviolet light is transmitted through the side walls of the container to activate any fluorescent agent that could have migrated beyond the closure to the interior of the container. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the closure is removed from the container to expose an area previously covered by the closure, and the exposed area of the container is subjected to ultraviolet light to activate any fluorescent agent that may have migrated inside. of the exposed area. 10. The method of compliance with the claim 1, characterized in that the ultraviolet light is provided by a long wave ultraviolet light lamp. 11. A method for evaluating the integrity of a closure in a hot filled container having an interior and exterior and wherein the hot filled container is subjected to a pressurized spray of a cooling medium, characterized in that it comprises: providing the medium refrigerant with an effective amount of a fluorescent dye composition having a fluorescent agent; spraying the container with the cooling medium having the fluorescent dye composition while also cooling the hot filled container with a pressurized spray of the cooling medium; subjecting the container to ultraviolet light to activate any fluorescent agent that may have migrated beyond the closure into the interior of the container; and reviewing the container to determine the presence or absence of the activated fluorescent agent. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the fluorescent dye composition comprises riboflavin and water. 13. The method according to the claim 12, characterized in that the fluorescent dye composition comprises approximately 0.2 grams of riboflavin for each liter of water. 1 . The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the container has translucent side walls and the ultraviolet light is transmitted through the side walls of the container to activate any fluorescent agent that could have migrated beyond the closure into the interior of the container. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the closure is removed from the container to expose an area previously covered by the closure, and the exposed area of the container is subjected to ultraviolet light to activate any fluorescent agent that may have migrated inside. of the exposed area. 16. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the fluorescent dye composition comprises riboflavin, a sugar and water.